MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

9/28 Coleman to start Friday

Rookie Casey Coleman will make one more start on Friday, opening the Cubs’ final series of the season against the Astros. Mike Quade tabbed Coleman (3-2, 4.68 ERA) over Jeff Samardzija (2-2, 8.38 ERA). Both were considered. Samardzija threw a soft side session on Tuesday and will be available in the bullpen as early as Thursday. The right-hander, who was 11-3 at Triple-A Iowa this season, did lobby to make one more start, Quade said.

“I’m never happy when a guy says, ‘OK, great,'” Quade said. “I also think this will give Larry [Rothschild, pitching coach] some time to work on his delivery and try to get as much work here the last week, whether it’s pitching in games or pitching on the side to further his development and help with his command.”

In Samardzija’s last outing Sunday against the Cardinals, he gave up seven hits and walked seven over 4 1/3 innings and took the loss.

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